Lets say, I am producing, storing, and then distributing 1000L or even 100L of distillate per week, and equal amounts of isolate.
What do you guys think the best option is container wise? I feel like shipping 1000 separate media bottles is kind of ridiculous, both cost wise and potential breakage.
At my old lab we would use screw top pails of different sizes with different color lids from ULINE to store distillate. I’ll put a link at the bottom so you can see. These were acceptable because we’d store them for long periods of time and our volume was relatively low. The cost of these screw top buckets even when buying in bulk isn’t super expensive compared to the income, however, spending $1500 a week on buckets that we’ll never get back seems inefficient. I’ve been able to find the 5GAL for around $10 and the 2.5GAL for around $5. Sure the cost is pretty minimal compared to the income, but obviously there is already a lot of other overhead in different areas, so we want to keep costs down.
We’ve considered barrels, but then there is a concern that customers won’t have a convenient way access the material inside. How would one remove say 4 L from a barrel?!
These are types of questions I’m asked everyday as I scale a small lab to a small factory.
I’m assuming you deal with CBD distillate that will turn solid so you need to keep in mind the person buying it will then need to heat the container in a suitable water bath to melt it back down to a flow-able state. Have you ever tried to melt down even a 5 liter container of crystallized oil? It takes 4-6 hours in a water bath at 70c.
Then you need to consider the containers ability to handle heating to 70c and not contaminate the oil. Then you have to ensure it something that will not be damaged in shipping. Then a food grade material or material coated with a food grade coating.
I would reach out to the buyers you have and see what they would prefer size wise and then work back from there.
I would steer far away from a large drum of oil as it would be a nightmare to handle, process and get all the oil out.
I mean at 100L a week using metal 21L buckets is completely sufficient for us even at 30$ a bucket. Can handle heat just fine and has next to no loss on it because of the temp it can be heated to. Even up to 500L a week your talking 20 buckets and 600$ in buckets. That’s completely acceptable
Considering the fact that distillate is pretty inert when in contact with plastic, I’d assume that those containers are fine–just give it a thorough wash/dry first.
Right on ty for this response. My concern w metal buckets is potential leaching of metals into disty, especially at higher temps. If you look at all of Mile High’s recent distillate ads, they are always shown in these pretty fancy looking aluminum cylinders. However I came to find out they are testing them for the same concerns. As of now they only ship in pharmaceutical grade plastic
I’d also want to know if your buckets are food grade at minimum, and what metals is consists of.
If you fill it to brim, and then heat it, the oil will expand and yes leak over sides. After filling hundreds of buckets in my career, I’ve never had that happen because I always leave at least 1.5" of headspace when filling.
I’m also pretty cautious when moving the bucket because it can get a bit messy and wasteful if you tip it enough the the oil starts to flow on the lid.
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